The superseding indictment charges the defendants with a variety of charges added to an indictment originally returned in August 2011. The indictment charged Babubhai Patel, a Canton Township pharmacist with overseeing a massive health care fraud and drug distribution ring at more than 20 pharmacies he owned and controlled in the Detroit Metropolitan area.

Also indicted were home health agency owner Vinod Patel, 40, and business associate Atul Patel, 31, both of Canton Township; marketers Anthony Macklin (aka Jimbo) and Michael Thoran (aks Ace), both of Detroit.

“Taxpayers fund Medicare and Medicaid to provide health care for needy citizens,” McQuade said in a prepared statement. “We hope that doctors and pharmacists will take note that if they exploit these programs for personal profit they will face serious consequences.”

The indictment contends that Babubhai Patel was the beneficial owner and controller of 26 pharmacies statewide. It said he would offer and provide kickbacks, bribes and other illegal benefits to physicians to induce them to write prescriptions for patients with Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance and to direct that those prescriptions be presented to one of the Patel Pharmacies for billing.

Of the 26 defendants originally charged in the indictment, six were convicted during a trial last year. Fifteen additional defendants, including six pharmacists and two doctors, have pled guilty.

The five remaining defendants had their charges renewed in the indictment. They are awaiting trial set for June 10.

McQuade said Babubhai Patel was sentenced to 17 years in a federal prison by U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Tarnow.

Dr. Zef Lucaj, owner of the Macomb Medical Center who has an office in the building on 19 Mile Road west of Garfield Road where Dr. Utarnachitt practices, said he is surprised at the indictment. He said Dr. Utarnachitt has been practicing medicine in Macomb County “forever” and is well respected at Henry Ford Macomb Hospital in Clinton Township.

McQuade said the physicians would write prescriptions for patients and bill the relevant insurers for services supposedly provided without regard to the medical necessity of those prescriptions and service. They would direct their parents to Patel’s pharmacies.

The indictment also says there was a conspiracy to distribute controlled drugs at Patel pharmacies such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, alprazolam and cough syrup with codeine. McQuade said the drugs were written outside of legitimate medical practices. Pharmacists would dispense the drugs to patients without medical necessity.